A new try for trash reform

Led by Alderman Mark Mahoney, this new City Council may get the job done

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People who have lived somewhere else are best at
understanding how complex and cumbersome Springfield’s trash system
is. When Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson lived in Chicago, she simply put her
garbage out and it was picked up. No bill, no questions, no problem.
That’s the way it works in most cities, large and small. But in Springfield Simpson’s still learning the
patched-together system of multiple private haulers, with different rules
for yard waste, which is sometimes free and sometimes requires a sticker,
and still other systems for recycling, bulky-item pickup, and tree-branch
disposal. Some trash goes to the alley, some goes to the curb, and if you
get that wrong it sits there. Sometimes it sits there even if you get it
right, but it’s hard to know. Was I supposed put a sticker on those
tree branches? “It is cumbersome,” says David Schaab
about Springfield’s system. “It needs to be simplified.”
Schaab is the municipal marketing manager for the Waste Management company,
which hauls garbage for Peoria, Galesburg, Monmouth, Macomb, and many other
cities. In those places, as in most towns across the country, the only
thing residents have to remember is what day to put out their garbage. All
they know, he says, is this: “It was full when I went to work. It was
empty when I came home.” Confusion about the rules is not the biggest problem
with Springfield’s subscription-based trash system. The problem is
that at least hundreds, probably thousands, of households — no one
knows exactly how many — choose not to subscribe. They sneak their
garbage into someone else’s Dumpster, let it pile up in the alley, or
fly-dump it in a vacant lot. “With a subscription system,”
Schaab says, “fly dumping is here to stay.”Schaab may be right that the only way to deal
effectively with fly dumping is to have “universal service,” in
which the city pays to have everybody’s garbage picked up, as Peoria
does. Even in Peoria there is reportedly some fly dumping, although Schaab
says that Waste Management, as the city’s contracted hauler, quickly
cleans up messes when it is notified. Though universal service is
attractive, Springfield probably isn’t politically ready for that
much change. It is too soon to say that Springfield’s ordinance
requiring all households to subscribe to garbage service is unenforceable.
That’s because the city hasn’t really tried to enforce it. The first step toward better enforcement is to find
out how many households don’t have trash service. Wynne Coplea,
manager of the city’s Division of Waste and Recycling, has gathered
estimates indicating that there are 34,085 occupied homes in Springfield,
and quarterly reports from the city’s four haulers show an average
over the 2006 calendar year of 32,277 homes with garbage service. That
would leave 1,808 homes, or 5.3 percent, without service. But Coplea says
that some haulers may leave non-paying customers on their rolls even after
they cut off service, in hopes of getting them back. Schaab of Waste
Management says that subscription-based trash systems elsewhere rarely have
more than 75 percent participation, and earlier studies have shown 15 to 20
percent noncompliance in Springfield. A more accurate answer would result
from matching the waste haulers’ customer addresses with a master
list of residences with utility service. Mike Norris, director of public
works, said he’s tried doing that, using geographic information
system software, but getting reliable results proved too difficult. Perhaps
the aldermen will urge him to try again. As Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney told Illinois Times: “There
was a discrepancy in the number of households that do not have pickup. We
need to find out exactly what we’re looking at.”Once the city identifies which households don’t
have trash service, neighborhood associations could be enlisted to help get
them signed up. An enforcement effort would be aided by a new ordinance
clarifying that landlords are responsible for seeing that trash service is
provided at all rented locations. The current ordinance says trash service
is the responsibility of “the owner or occupant, lessee or contract
for deed buyer” of a residence, allowing each to blame the other.
This and other worthy recommendations are in the 2001 report of Mayor Karen
Hasara’s Waste and Recycling Task Force, a must-read for the current
aldermen. Simplifying the trash system won’t be easy. The
current mayor and his predecessor both plunged into the problem
enthusiastically at first, only to back off after learning the
issue’s political difficulties. It’s heartening that Mahoney
and the new City Council are making a fresh attempt to clean up the city by
taking on trash reform. Mahoney’s waste subcommittee drew eight of
the 10 aldermen to its first hearing, June 18, when it heard from city
staffers and waste haulers. The aldermen can expect a large turnout for the
second hearing, July 16, when landlords and neighborhood groups are invited
to weigh in. Perhaps this new City Council can find the political will to
get the job done this time. Political will is, after all, a renewable
resource.Fletcher Farrar was a member of the 2001 Waste and
Recycling Task Force, a group whose recommendations have yet to be
implemented. He can be reached at ffarrar@illinoistimes.com.